For three days the river ran brown and loud. When the rain stopped, Mina walked the path along the bank. The water had stepped back, leaving a line of objects on the mud: a wooden spoon, one blue glove, a plastic dinosaur, a tin lid with a dent in it.
连续三天，河水又浑又响。雨停后，米娜沿着河岸的小路走。水退了下去，在泥地上留下一排东西：一把木勺、一只蓝色手套、一只塑料恐龙，还有一个凹了一块的铁皮盖。
Her teacher called it rubbish and told the class to bring gloves and bags. Mina picked up the spoon and turned it over. Each object looked like a word in a sentence the river was trying to write. She borrowed a cardboard box from the bakery and began to collect, writing on a scrap of paper where each thing had been found.
老师管这些叫垃圾，让全班带上手套和袋子。米娜捡起木勺，把它翻过来。每一件东西都像河想写的一句话里的一个词。她从面包店借来一个纸箱，开始收集，并在纸片上记下每样东西是在哪里找到的。
On Saturday, Mina set the objects on a table outside the library. She wrote neat labels: 'Found near the old bridge.' 'Found under the yellow bench.' The baker laughed and said nobody would stop for junk. But a small crowd gathered. A boy shouted when he saw the plastic dinosaur. He had lost it in June and cried for a week.
星期六，米娜把这些东西摆到图书馆外的一张桌子上。她工整地写了标签：“在旧桥附近找到。”“在黄色长椅下找到。”面包师笑着说，没人会为了一堆破烂停下来。可还是有一小群人围了过来。一个男孩看见那只塑料恐龙时叫了起来。那是他六月丢的，他为它哭了一个星期。
Then an old woman picked up the tin lid. She turned it over and showed Mina a tiny stamp on the rim: three letters and a date. Her husband had made biscuit tins in his workshop before he retired. The flood had taken their garden shed, and she had thought everything inside was gone.
接着，一位老妇人拿起铁皮盖。她把它翻过来，让米娜看边缘上一个很小的印记：三个字母和一个日期。她丈夫退休前在他的作坊里做饼干铁盒。洪水冲走了他们的花园小屋，她以为里面的东西全没了。
The woman came back the next day with a photograph of the tin, full of biscuits, on a kitchen table. She gave Mina a blue notebook for future finds. The baker brought a wooden board and painted a proper sign: 'Letters from the River.' People began to leave notes about things they had lost.
第二天，老妇人带来一张照片，照片上那个铁盒装满了饼干，放在厨房桌上。她送给米娜一本蓝色笔记本，用来记录以后的发现。面包师拿来一块木板，漆了一块像样的招牌：“河流的来信。”人们开始留下字条，写下自己丢失的东西。
Mina wrote at the top of the table: 'Please read, then return what can be returned.' By autumn, the spoon and the glove had found their owners. The dinosaur stayed on the library shelf, guarding the notebook. The river kept writing after every storm, and the town had finally learned how to answer.
米娜在桌子最上面写道：“请先读一读，再把能归还的归还。”到了秋天，木勺和手套都找到了主人。塑料恐龙留在了图书馆的书架上，守着那本笔记本。每场暴雨过后，河都继续写着，而小城终于学会了怎样回信。